Zanatta Ana C, Mari Angela, Masullo Milena, Zeppone Carlos Iracilda, Vilegas Wagner, Piacente Sonia, Campaner Dos Santos Lourdes
Institute of Chemistry, São Paulo State University (UNESP), Campus Araraquara, Department of Organic Chemistry, Araraquara, SP, Brazil.
Università degli Studi di Salerno, Departament of Pharmaceutical Science and Biomedical, Fisciano, SA, Italy.
Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom. 2018 Feb 15;32(3):241-250. doi: 10.1002/rcm.8034.
Actinocephalus divaricatus (Eriocaulaceae) is an important source of income for rural communities as it is sold as an ornamental plant. To date, no investigation has been conducted concerning the chemical composition and biological studies of the aerial parts of A. divaricatus.
The methanolic extract of the aerial parts of this species was chemically characterized. We applied an analytical dereplication approach based on Liquid Chromatography coupled to High-Resolution Orbitrap Mass Spectrometry in order to develop, identify and define rapidly the metabolite fingerprint of the aerial parts of A. divaricatus. Biological in vitro antitumor tests were undertaken using breast and lung cell lines of mice and humans.
High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry (HRMS) allowed the fast determination of 30 compounds, which comprised three different classes of compounds: naphthopyranones, flavonoids and saponins. Chromatographic fractionation of the crude methanolic extract validated these results, since it led to the isolation of compounds belonging to the aforementioned classes of compounds, including new acyl glycosylated flavonoids (6-hydroxy-7-methoxyquercetin-3-O-(2"-O-acetyl)-β-D-glucopyranoside and 6-hydroxy-7-methoxyquercetin-3-O-(6"-O-acetyl)-β-D-glucopyranoside), which were fully characterized by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Mass Spectrometry experiments, and a known triterpenic saponin (3-O-β-D-glucuronopyranosyl-30-norolean-12,20(29)-dien-28-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl ester). Biological assays indicated that the methanolic extract of the capitula exhibited the best in vitro cytotoxicity against MCF7 cells (human breast cancer).
The HRMS technique enabled us to identify several classes of compounds. In addition, saponins were identified for the first time in plants belonging to the Eriocaulaceae family. Thus, the essential contribution of this work lies in the new elements it brings to the taxonomic discussion which the Actinocephalus genus as a distinct genus of the Paepalanthus. The results obtained show that the methanolic extract of the capitula could be a promising source of bioactive fractions and/or compounds that may contribute towards breast cancer treatment.
叉枝头花草（谷精草科）作为一种观赏植物出售，是农村社区重要的收入来源。迄今为止，尚未对叉枝头花草地上部分的化学成分和生物学特性进行过研究。
对该物种地上部分的甲醇提取物进行化学表征。我们采用基于液相色谱与高分辨率轨道阱质谱联用的分析去重复方法，以便快速开发、鉴定和确定叉枝头花草地上部分的代谢物指纹图谱。使用小鼠和人类的乳腺癌和肺癌细胞系进行体外生物抗肿瘤试验。
高分辨率质谱（HRMS）能够快速测定30种化合物，这些化合物包括三类不同的化合物：萘并吡喃酮、黄酮类化合物和皂苷。粗甲醇提取物的色谱分离验证了这些结果，因为它导致分离出属于上述化合物类别的化合物，包括新的酰基糖基化黄酮类化合物（6-羟基-7-甲氧基槲皮素-3-O-(2″-O-乙酰基)-β-D-吡喃葡萄糖苷和6-羟基-7-甲氧基槲皮素-3-O-(6″-O-乙酰基)-β-D-吡喃葡萄糖苷），通过核磁共振和质谱实验对其进行了全面表征，以及一种已知的三萜皂苷（3-O-β-D-葡萄糖醛酸吡喃糖基-30-降齐墩果-12,20(29)-二烯-28-O-β-D-吡喃葡萄糖基酯）。生物测定表明，头状花序的甲醇提取物对MCF7细胞（人乳腺癌细胞）表现出最佳的体外细胞毒性。
HRMS技术使我们能够鉴定几类化合物。此外，首次在谷精草科植物中鉴定出皂苷。因此，这项工作的重要贡献在于它为将叉枝头花草属作为拟谷精草属的一个独特属的分类学讨论带来的新元素。获得的结果表明，头状花序的甲醇提取物可能是有前景的生物活性成分和/或化合物来源，可能有助于乳腺癌治疗。
